Cash Payments received by Scottish Borders Council - Freedom of information requests
Title or Description
Cash Payments received by Scottish Borders Council
FOI Number
15474
Date Received
04/08/2021
Type of Request
FOI
Request or Question
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000). My questions are as follows:1. Has the council stopped accepting cash payments in any of the following areas of council business?a. Housing
b. Welfare
c. Tax payments
d. Childcare
e. Adult education and skills training
f. Educational support (such as learning support or council-provided tuition)
g. Leisure/sport
h. Parking
i. Health, social care, dentistry or mental health services (please specify)
j. Payments to schools (including school meals)
k. The council is completely ‘cashless’ (cash is not used for any payments across council business)
2. If you answered yes to any question from 1(a) through 1(j), does the council have records of the number of payments made by cash prior to the cessation of accepting cash? If so, please provide these. If possible, please provide these figures for the three years prior to cessation, in yearly intervals.
3. If you answered yes to question 1(g), does the council have records of the number of people who have been refused access to leisure or sport facilities due to being unable to make non-cash payments? If so, please provide these figures for each year since the council stopped accepting cash.
4. If you answered yes to question 1(j) (that the council no longer accepts cash for school meals), does the council have records of the number of students buying school meals in 12 months before and after the switch to cashless was made? If so, please provide these, broken down by month.
5. If you answered ‘no’ to question 1(g), does your council have any plans to move toward exclusively taking non-cash payments for council services?
6. Please provide a breakdown of the payment methods used for the services listed in question 1.
Response
1 . Scottish Borders Council still accepts cash payments.
2. N/A
3. Scottish Borders Council do not hold any information in relation to this therefore we give notice of S17 of FOI(S)A 2002, Sport and leisure facilities within Scottish Borders Council are supplied by Live Borders they can be contacted at the first website link provided below.
4. N/A
5. Scottish Borders Council do not hold any information in relation to this therefore we give notice of S17 of FOI(S)A 2002, Sport and leisure facilities within Scottish Borders Council are supplied by Live Borders they can be contacted at the first website link provided below.
6. Payment methods can be found on the 2nd link below.
Customers can also still pay for goods and services via cash, cheque and postal order.
Parking at Scottish Borders Council car parks do accept the Ringo App for cashless payments as well as cash. Penalty Charge notices can be paid via cheque/postal Order, Automated payment line, On line via the Scottish Borders Council Website or by telephoning Scottish Borders Council Customer Advice and payment can be taken over the telephone.
With regard to Educational services parents have an additional facility to pay via Parent pay (online payment facility ) .
Please note that Scottish Borders Council is a post transfer council and does not have a stock of Council houses, further details of Housing Associations can be found at the 3rd link below.
